Total cash winnings since Jan 1, 2012 & May 23, 2011
Listings of people who have won more than $2000 in the past year and/or $1000 in the current calendar year according to values in the eatfeats database are available after the jump. These listings are incomplete; several independent contests (Sylvester’s Burgers, San Antonio tamales, etc.) have not announced results. Please put any unlisted cash awards not entered in the database in the comments.
The sidebar will be updated soon to list both of these tables.
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GameDesignerBen has posted a picture of a board game titled Guts of Glory, described as a "post-apocalyptic competitive eating card game."
Jimmy John's has been removed from the likes list on the MLE facebook page which probably implies that the sandwich makers vs. eaters series will not be returning in 2012. (Pepto Bismol remains on the like list despite reports that it has yet to extend its sponsorship deal for 2012.)
Time Out Chicago has an article about Glutton Force Five, the food truck owned by Pat Bertoletti and Tim Brown. To promote the truck, Bertoletti and Brown are planning a "Gluttony Tour" in which they will attempt every Chicago eating challenge in less than 48 hours.
Takeru Kobayashi appears in a new video promoting Eight O'Clock Coffee where he drank 42 cups. Comedian Jim Breuer, formerly of Saturday Night Live, served as co-host.
Joey Chestnut earnings: 2010 vs 2011
ESPN.com has a list of the highest paid competitors by sport which lists Joey Chestnut’s 2011 earnings as $205,000, the same value given in a ninemsn.au.com article earlier this year and represents a $20,000 decline from the $225,000 he reportedly earned in 2010.
It is surprising that Joey Chestnut’s overall earnings decreased from 2010 to 2011 when the sum of the public prizes he was awarded in those years increased from $32,500 to $43,000. $43,000 to $32,250. (A raise in the TooJay’s corned beef contest first prize from $5,000 to $12,500 was responsible for $7,500 of that increase.) The discontinuation of two 2010 exhibition series Joey Chestnut participated in, Jimmy John’s sandwich makers vs. eaters and competitions sponsored by Pepto Bismol in which Joey Chestnut faced a team of amateurs, might have been responsible for some of the decline.
Listings of Joey Chestnut’s results and public prizes in 2010 and 2011 follow after the jump.
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DVDs for Man v. Food: Nation are available for purchase on amazon.com and will be released on April 10. A press release says the set will include the 25 episodes previously televised so the two final episodes that will air on April 11 will not be included.
Joey Chestnut endorses Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs of Denver in a commercial.
Spreadshirt is selling new Will "The Champ" Millender T-shirts (fixed) with Will's new logo on them. (black shirts)
NineMSN.com.au lists Joey Chestnut's 2011 competitive eating income as $205,000, a $20,000 decrease from 2010. The article also claims that Nathan's contract with ESPN has reportedly been extended to 2017. update Hmm noted the article has been pulled, it is still available in the Google cache. update #2 New link for article on msn.com
Spreadshirt has a line of Kobayashi T-shirts with a Philadelphia theme.
TheScore.com interviews Takeru Kobayashi
TheScore.com has an interview with Takeru Kobayashi (via FreeKobayashi twitter), who has the following things to say about his former organization:
He also says that MLE has a tendency to send packages of eaters to particular events, with an eye towards tilting the balance towards favoured competitors.
“If they want one character to win [a particular contest]… They choose which [other] players are going to go there… and they can prevent other players who actually want be at that contest from going,” Kobayashi said through James.
That said, he’s quite emphatic in stating that he’s not accusing the competitive eating circuit of being fixed, just that the deck is occasionally stacked in favour of certain eaters.
“No, it’s not [fixed], but in their organization, on their terms… it’s close to being that way. They control it the way that they want it.”
The interview also mentions a thwarted deal with Johnsonville Sausages. (Kobayashi competed in an IFOCE Johnsonville bratwurst contest in 2006.)
“Johnsonville Sausages, for example, contacted Kobi and wanted to work with him… and he wanted to work with them, but he couldn’t,” James says. “They were holding him down, like ‘No… unless they go through us, you can’t work with them,’ which was heinous to him, because he had an agency in Japan that he was with… He didn’t belong to [MLE,] but they came up out of the blue and said ‘We own you, and we’re going to make people sign through us if they want anything to do with you.’”
The article lists Don Povia of HHR Media Group as Kobayashi’s manager. The HHR stands for HuggingHaroldReyndold.com, which Povia co-founded.
The NY Times small business blog has an entry about grand openings reporting that the total budget for the "Hottest Dog" contest judged by Joey Chestnut at the Banfield Pet Hospital in Brooklyn was $10,000 (Joey Chestnut's appearance fee was not split out.)
Joe Menchetti sets NYC Dumpling Festival record
update 11:15 Ekavet has a flckr gallery. Will Millender has videos of the women’s contest and first heat of the male contest. Feeding the Dragon has a video of the second heat won by Joe Menchetti.
update 2:41 Miss Korea BBQ reports that Joe Menchetti won the men’s contest with a total of 69 dumplings, breaking his record of 66. Will Millender reports that he took 3rd w/ 45 and that Dave Brunelli was runner up with 60. Marcos Owens was 4th with 44.
update 2:30 Floria Lee has repeated as the women’s winner with a total of 37 dumplings.
update 2:20 Will Millender reports that Dave Brunelli is the current leader of the men’s contest with 60 and that Joe Menchetti broke the stairs to the stage, which others confirm.
Today’s eating contest at the NYC Dumpling Festival should start at 2pm. Will Millender reports he is at the contest site along with Joe Menchetti, Mike Longo and Marcos Owens. Floria Lee and Olia Zaitseva will attempt to fill the top two spots in the women’s contest for the third straight year.
The shirt Will Millender is wearing at the contest displaying Mike Longo’s severed head can be purchased online.
Pat Bertoletti & Tim Brown food truck web page
A web page for Pat Bertoletti and Tim Brown’s food truck has been set up at http://www.gluttonforcefive.com/ (Sir Snugglesworth, Partybot and Pink Unicorn are the other team members.) The truck is offering a sandwich eating challenge awarding $500 to a customer that can beat Pat or Tim’s time. A facebook with a picture of the back of the truck and twitter have also been started. (via RJOPhoto)
Minyanville has a video titled The Economics of Competitive Eating which asks Tim Janus and other competitors at the recent Nathan's weigh-in how rising food prices have affected their training.
IFOCE non-compete clause
The non-compete clause in the IFOCE contract appears in the video played at Kobayashi’s event on July 4 at the 3:30 mark and can be viewed after the jump.
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CNN.com has a video titled "Nathan's Marketing Genius" reporting that total sales of Nathan's hot dogs have approximately doubled since 2003.
Bleacher Report believes that the purse for the Nathan's contest should be much greater than the current $20,000.
Ken Hoffman of the Houston Chronicle calls Takeru Kobayashi's refusal to sign the IFOCE contract "union busting".
Business Week has an article about the financial side of competitive eating reporting that Joey Chestnut received over $100,000 from Pepto Bismol. Tim Janus says that he has not earned more than $35,000 in a year and wishes that compensation was distributed more evenly.
Grace Lee is looking for sponsors for her trip to the Nathan's finals.
The Daily has an article about eating challenges attempted by workers in Manhattan's financial district with a quote from former day trader Tim Janus. Ian Roncoroni, an energy options broker, won $3,500 after winning a bet that he could not eat 244 raw oysters.
"Furious" Pete T-shirts with the Peta (People Eating Tasty Animals) logo are available for purchase.
Kobayashi calls IFOCE contract a “slave contract”
AOL Weird News has an article about Takeru Kobayashi being removed from the Nathan’s “Wall of Fame” which includes the following statement from Kobayashi via his translator Maggie James:
By not signing their contract, they will erase you from the wall. They are not deep about the spirit of history. They do as they wish. They are not presenting a contract that protects the league as a whole. They only present individual slave contracts which control each player in their category of value. Nothing protects the sport.
A picture of the old wall with Kobayashi still appears on the Nathan’s Famous facebook page.
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